Skiing: CU Buffs rally to win Denver Invitational

Reid, Oedegaard pick up individual title

MINTURN -- The Colorado ski team swept Sunday's races at the Denver Invitational to complete an impressive weekend comeback and win the meet overall.

Joanne Reid and Rune Oedegaard each picked up victories in the Nordic classical races at Maloit Park to lift the Buffs past the host Pioneers by 19 total points. Colorado had entered the weekend 71 points down in the team standings.

Oedegaard opened Sunday's events with a 2-second win over Utah's Einar Ulsund in the 10K freestyle. New Mexico's Mats Resaland was third about 25 seconds back after having fallen off the lead group near the end.

"Rune is in good form," CU Nordic coach Bruce Cranmer said. "He was excited to come out today after getting banged up a little yesterday. He will have to stay on form; there are five or six guys who can win on any given weekend."

Oedegaard, who finished second Saturday despite falling and needing Super Glue to close a cut on his forehead, now has seven victories and 13 podium appearances in 16 career races. This season, he has a pair of wins and pair of runner up performances in four races.

"It's a good start to the season," Oedegaard said. "I haven't done anything to peak yet, so I hope I can continue this."

In the women's 10K Classical race, Reid claimed victory in 31:43.7. Her CU teammate, Eliska Hajkova, was second in 32:00.9.

Reid opened a lead the first time through the big uphill portion of the race course and then extended it the remainder of the race.

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"You always try and win, but it usually doesn't work out for you," Reid said. "That race didn't go the way I expected or planned in any way. I was just skiing up the hill, trying to stay out of trouble, I didn't want anybody to come around me, I'm not usually a strong uphill classic skier. When you're in the lead by a lot, instead of being really loud it's really quiet. You can't see people behind you or hear them, so I got worried and kept going faster."

The Buffs finished the meet with 852 points, followed by Denver's 833. Utah (796) jumped New Mexico (754) for third place.

After opening the season with four races in the span of eight days, the Nordic teams return to action Feb. 1-2 at the New Mexico Invitational in Red River, N.M. The alpine teams, meanwhile, don't compete again until the Utah Invitational Feb. 6-7 at Loveland.

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